1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a television camera apparatus used for surveillance applications.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Surveillance television cameras are commonly mounted onto a wall, pole, ceiling or any other fixed base by using an extended arm, known as a camera mount. The extended arm or the camera mount includes a swivel joint, which permits the positioning of the horizontal and vertical axes of the camera in order to direct the camera lens toward its intended observation end. In many cases the television cameras are covered by a housing which is bulky and, as a result, the entire camera assembly becomes large and heavy and this is very disturbing to the architecture of buildings and interiors. For the surveillance of jails and similar institutions that are violent in nature and/or prone to vandalism it is not possible to employ television cameras that are mounted on a mount and a swivel joint because common mounts with swivel joints can be easily tampered with and/or break. Therefore, cameras used for observation of a violent environment are commonly mounted inside a camera housing which is constructed of a thick steel and known as a vandal proof housing. Such camera housings are bolted to walls or ceilings, which limits the positioning of the horizontal and vertical axes of the cameras to within the housing interiors, with the camera positioning particularly restricted by the size of the visible area of the front pane.
Other types of housings, known as explosion proof housings are used for the surveillance of oil fields, refineries and/or similar explosive gaseous environment. Such explosion proof housings are constructed of a very thick steel or other metals and are extremely heavy. The explosion proof housings are further airtight sealed and must be bolted to rugged mounting accessories, which are costly, heavy and time consuming to adjust.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a housing for a television camera that is vandal proof and/or explosion proof and that permits simple repositioning of its horizontal and vertical axes for observing different scenes.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a television camera housing that can be partially recessed inside a ceiling, a wall or other plane structures and to maintain its simple repositioning capabilities.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vandal proof housing and/or an explosion proof housing that is pleasing in its design and is not obstructing the interior designs of buildings.